Assessing intonation and prosody in children with atypical language development: the PEPS-C test and the revised version.

A procedure for assessing prosody and intonation in children (PEPS-C: Profiling Elements of Prosodic Systems--Children), suitable for use by clinicians with both children and adults, is described. The procedure includes testing of four communication areas in which intonation/prosody has a crucial role: interaction, affect, boundary (chunking) and focus. Each area has parallel tasks for assessing understanding and expression of the functions and ability to discriminate and articulate the prosodic forms involved.

Long-term survey of laryngoplasty and ventriculocordectomy in an older, mixed-breed population of 200 horses. Part 2: Owners' assessment of the value of surgery.

Reasons For Performing Study: There is continuing debate on the clinical benefit of laryngoplasty (LP) in the treatment of equine laryngeal paralysis. In particular, there is little information available on the clinical value of this surgery in older horses, in non-Thoroughbreds or in sports or pleasure horses; nor on the relationship between the degree of LP abduction achieved and the clinical value of LP.

Objectives: To evaluate the owner's assessment of the value of LP (and combined ventriculocordectomy) in an older, mixed breed and mixed workload population of horses and to also assess the relationship between the degree of LP abduction present and the clinical value of this surgery.

Long-term survey of laryngoplasty and ventriculocordectomy in an older, mixed-breed population of 200 horses. Part 1: Maintenance of surgical arytenoid abduction and complications of surgery.

Reasons For Performing Study: Laryngoplasty (LP) is currently the most common surgical treatment for equine laryngeal paralysis, however, there have been no reports quantifying the degree of retention of arytenoid abduction following LP. Additionally, the complications of LP have been poorly documented.

Objectives: To record the degree of arytenoid abduction retention following LP and to accurately document all complications of surgery.

Anogenital injuries in child pedestrians run over by low-speed motor vehicles: four cases with findings that mimic child sexual abuse.

Objective: Differentiating between child sexual abuse and nonintentional causes of anogenital injury can be challenging, and a misdiagnosis can have a profound impact on the child and family. This case series documents an important nonintentional mechanism of anogenital injury that mimics the physical findings of child sexual abuse.

Methods: Four children were examined after being run over by a slow-moving motor vehicle.

Emergence of macrolide resistance in throat culture isolates of group a streptococci in Ontario, Canada, in 2001.

Of 500 group A streptococci isolated from pharyngeal swabs, 72 (14.4%) were macrolide resistant, compared to 2.1% in 1997.

Adenine release is fast in MutY-catalyzed hydrolysis of G:A and 8-Oxo-G:A DNA mismatches.

MutY, a DNA repair enzyme, is unusual in that it binds exceedingly tightly to its products after the chemical steps of catalysis. Until now it was not known whether the product being released in the rate-limiting step was DNA, adenine, or both. MutY hydrolyzes adenine from 8-oxo-G:A (OG:A) base pair mismatches as the first step in the base excision repair pathway, as well as from G:A mismatches.

Orbital volume augmentation for late enophthalmos using the deep lateral wall.

Orbital volume augmentation to address enophthalmos and hollowing of the superior sulcus has been described with a variety of materials and from a variety of approaches.(1-4) A common location for volume augmentation is the inferomedial orbital wall; this surface is often the one that was expanded related to orbital trauma, and it is easily accessed through hidden conjunctival or caruncular incisions.

Apoptotic neuronal death following deep hypothermic circulatory arrest in piglets.

Background: Deep hypothermic circulatory arrest (DHCA), as used in infant heart surgery, carries a risk of brain injury. In a piglet DHCA model, neocortical neurons appear to undergo apoptotic death. Caspases, cytochrome c, tumor necrosis factor (TNF), and Fas play a role in apoptosis in many ischemic models.

The effect of mirthful laughter on stress and natural killer cell activity.

Context: A recent survey of rural Midwestern cancer patients revealed that humor was one of the most frequently used complementary therapies. Psychoneuroimmunology research suggests that, in addition to its established psychological benefits, humor may have physiological effects on immune functioning.

Objective: To determine the effect of laughter on self-reported stress and natural killer cell activity.

The RAD30 cancer susceptibility gene.

The human skin cancer-prone disease xeroderma pigmentosum variant (XPV) results from a mutation in RAD30, which encodes the novel lesion bypass DNA polymerase eta. XPV cells are characterized by delayed completion of DNA replication and increased mutagenesis following UV irradiation. In cell-free extracts of XPV lymphoblasts, functional DNA polymerase eta is required for the complete replication of a double-stranded plasmid containing either a single (6-4) photoproduct or a cyclobutane pyrimidine dime(CPD), the major mutagenic UV-induced lesion.

Treatment of prominent eyes with orbital rim onlay implants: four-year experience.

Purpose: Different approaches have been proposed to address the aesthetic or reconstructive challenge associated with relatively prominent eyes. Operations that address the soft tissues alone are prone to failure if the underlying orbital bony relationships are not addressed. Orbital rim advancement can serve as a supplement to orbital decompression in this setting or as an alternative for patients who may not maximally benefit from decompression surgery.

Psychoneuroimmunological Outcomes in Dementia Caregiver Intervention Studies: An Idea Whose Time Has Come?

PURPOSE: Mounting evidence indicates that the chronic stress of family caregiving has physiological effects and that caregiver stress may be associated with changes in the caregiver's physical health. Existing caregiver behavioral intervention studies have focused on caregiver stress and psychological distress outcomes. To date, no known caregiver intervention studies have included psychoneuroimmunological (PNI) outcome measures.

Desflurane improves neurologic outcome after low-flow cardiopulmonary bypass in newborn pigs.

Background: Despite improvements in neonatal heart surgery, neurologic complications continue to occur from low-flow cardiopulmonary bypass (LF-CPB) and deep hypothermic circulatory arrest (DHCA). Desflurane confers neuroprotection against ischemia at normothermia and for DHCA. This study compared neurologic outcome of a desflurane-based with a fentanyl-based anesthetic for LF-CPB.

Impact of false-positive mammography on subsequent screening attendance and risk of cancer.

Background: One area of concern within the largely successful UK National Health Service breast screening programme is the relatively high proportion of women showing mammographic abnormalities who undergo further diagnostic tests that prove negative. Previous studies suggest that, in addition to increasing anxiety, such false-positive mammography is associated with increased risk of subsequent interval cancer. In the present article, we quantify this increased risk, investigate whether it extends to cancers detected at rescreening, and determine whether cancers differ between women who have, and have not, experienced false-positive mammography.

Bovine hydroxyapatite orbital implant: a preliminary report.

Purpose: To determine the safety and efficacy of bovine hydroxyapatite as an orbital implant material.

Methods: Prospective, consecutive case series of patients undergoing enucleation, evisceration, or secondary orbital implantation. A motility peg was placed in all consenting candidates.

Use of vinyl polysiloxane impression material to protect and identify the nasolacrimal sac in endonasal dacryocystorhinostomy.

Purpose: To determine the role of vinyl polysiloxane impression material (trade name Reprosil) in endonasal dacryocystorhinostomy.

Methods: Case series of 15 consecutive endonasal dacryocystorhinostomies in which vinyl polysiloxane material was used to mark and protect the nasolacrimal sac. Vinyl polysiloxane is mixed from two tubes, then immediately injected in the sac through a preplaced 21-gauge cannula.

Physiologic markers of chronic stress in premenopausal, middle-aged women.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to identify physiological markers of chronic stress in middle-aged women that can be assessed simply and are thus feasible for introduction into large-scale, epidemiologic studies of aging.

Methods: Subjects were 40 nonsmoking, premenopausal women between the ages of 42 and 52 years, 20 of whom were chronically stressed because of undergoing a divorce or separation and 20 of whom were nonstressed because of being in stable marriages. Stressed and nonstressed women were matched for age, ethnicity, and education.

Cocaine/heroin induced rhabdomyolysis and ventricular fibrillation.

A case of cardiorespiratory arrest in a 28 year old man after cocaine and heroin ingestion is described. The arrest is attributed primarily to hyperkalaemia/rhabdomyolysis-a recognised consequence of each of these drugs. The administration of naloxone may have been contributory.